An Islamic Jihad operation. “Suicide bombing outside Netanya mall kills 5” from the Jerusalem Post, :
Four people were killed and 66 were wounded – three seriously – in an explosion that rocked the entrance to the Hasharon shopping mall on Herzl Street in Netanya at 11:25 a.m. Monday morning. Another person died on the operating table at Laniado Hospital in Kfar Saba.
Police Insp.-Gen. Moshe Karadi told reporters that the bomber was “identified 15 meters in front of the mall by policemen and a security guard. Police managed to keep him away from the gate, and he blew himself up when police approached him to conduct a search of his bags.”
According to Karadi, “Members of the security services were hurt in the event,” but “the actions of the guards and the police prevented a much more deadly bombing.”
Magen David Adom reported that all of the wounded were evacuated to Laniado, Meir and Hillel Yaffe hospitals. Nine wounded were taken to Laniado, including one who died after arrival. Hillel Yaffe received 22 wounded and 28 were evacuated to Meir Hospital.
The Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack in a phone call to Palestinian journalists, identifying the bomber as Lutfi Amin Abu Salem, a resident of the northern West Bank village of Kafr Rai, located between the towns of Jenin and Tulkarm.
Imad Abu Diab, a leader of the Islamic Jihad in Tulkarm, told The Jerusalem Post that “the tahdiya (or “calm”) no longer exists and that operations against Israel will continue as long as there is occupation.”
The Islamic Jihad is the only terror organization that is not a signatory to the Palestinian factions’ tahdiya.